Home / Questions / Curly-coated Retriever
If your shortlist question is whether Curly-coated Retrievers are good with other dogs, the breed record answers it directly: Good with dogs. That verdict fits the wider picture of the Curly-coated Retriever, a Sporting dog weighing 60 to 95 lb, with a Friendly, eager, steady and famously willing temperament and strangers rated as Friendly with strangers. This is a Sporting breed developed in United Kingdom - England, and whatever work it was bred for, aggression toward other dogs was never part of the design. Introductions still deserve ten calm minutes, but they rarely need more than that.
Curlies are confident, independent minded and deeply capable, more reserved and thoughtful than the extrovert retrievers, with a wicked memory for fallen birds and a quiet devotion at home. Owners describe the connoisseur's retriever: less famous than its cousins, and prized for exactly that steadiness. The Curly Coated Retriever suits active rural households that want the thinking person's retriever: taller, steadier and more independent than the popular pair. The breed holds AKC recognition, so its standard is set in the United States as well as in its homeland. The adult stands 25 to 27 in at the shoulder and weighs 60 to 95 lb.
Our record gives the Curly-coated Retriever a cluster of ratings that all point the same way. Dogs: Good with dogs. Strangers: Friendly with strangers. Children: Good with children. Add a Friendly, eager, steady and famously willing temperament, an energy score of 5 out of 5 and the Sporting heritage of a breed developed in United Kingdom - England, and the social picture is consistent rather than surprising. A breed's original work trained its instincts about other dogs for generations, herding dogs learned to work alongside them, guarding breeds learned to question them, and the Curly-coated Retriever still carries whatever its own history taught it. Against that background the dog to dog rating, Good with dogs, is one line in a coherent record, alongside Friendly with strangers for strangers and Good with children for children. Owners weighing a second dog should read the whole cluster, not the single line, because the dog that arrives home has all of these traits at once.
In the dog park and on the trail, the Curly-coated Retriever is generally the dog other owners are pleased to see. Its Friendly, eager, steady and famously willing temperament makes play bouncy rather than intense, and its social reading is quick: most Curly-coated Retrievers back off politely when another dog says enough. Owners still earn their keep. The breed's size, large at 60 to 95 lb, and its Sporting background both help: this is a dog bred in company, and company is its default setting. Introduce a newcomer on neutral ground, feed separately for the first weeks and give each dog an escape route to its own bed, and the Curly-coated Retriever's natural sociability handles the rest of the integration.
Friendly, eager and famously willing, good with children, good with other dogs and friendly with strangers in the record's ratings, it rates apartments as not ideal because the work requirement is genuine. The breed is rare and valued by gamekeepers and connoisseurs; owners describe the retriever for people who actually work retrievers, with a fireside character to match. Puppies are curly, bright charmers; adults are handsome, steady partners that work all day and supervise the evening calmly.
For completeness, the record's remaining lines: the record's color line for the Curly-coated Retriever reads: The standard accepts a range of colors and patterns, and individual markings vary a lot. Its coat is recorded as A dense, curly coat of small, tight, crisp curls covering the whole body, water resistant and without an undercoat, and its apartment rating is Not ideal. The health list behind the breed, Hip dysplasia, Eye conditions and Glycogen storage disease (DNA test), shapes its later years, when senior status arrives around age 7 years and social rounds get shorter and gentler. Read whole, the record describes a dog whose social settings change across its life while its underlying disposition, the thing this page's verdict rests on, stays recognizably itself.
Look sideways for a moment at the breeds this record finds most similar: the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, the Spinone Italiano and the Drentse Patrijshond. Their dog to dog verdicts differ in the details, which is the point: similarity of build and coat does not mean similarity of social style. The Curly-coated Retriever's own verdict, Good with dogs, was assigned on its own pattern of behavior, and it is the one to plan around, with the shortlist above serving as the comparison set if a second, different breed joins the home.
Even easy breeds hit an adolescent wobble, and owners should expect it rather than be ambushed by it. Somewhere in the second half of the first year a Curly-coated Retriever may get pushier in play, slower to recall from dogs and quicker to take offense, as hormones reprice the social world. Watch weight and fitness, since a Curly-coated Retriever at the top of its 60 to 95 lb range plays harder and tires dirtier than it should. And keep perspective: the occasional growl at a rude dog is a well brought up dog communicating, and a breed rated Good with dogs has earned the right to be believed when it speaks.
Adolescents are strong, clever and increasingly independent, and gundog work plus structure carries the household through. Old Curlies stay steady, devoted and dignified.
The arithmetic of a second dog deserves one honest paragraph. None of that argues against the second dog; multi dog homes are where this breed's Good with dogs verdict earns its keep. The cost record puts food near $46 a month for a typical 78 lb Curly-coated Retriever and insurance between $40 and $73 a month.
Generally yes, with the size arithmetic respected. In the Curly-coated Retriever's case the setting matters as much as the rule: this is a breed with very high energy and a bark level of 3 out of 5, so its social life happens against a fairly specific home backdrop. A Curly-coated Retriever weighs 60 to 95 lb, so play with much smaller dogs should be supervised until styles are proven, whatever the breed's intentions. The verdict behind the pairing is Good with dogs; the management is about physics, not temperament. Teach a reliable recall and a gentle play style early and the size gap stops being the story.
Start by checking the boring causes: pain, poor sleep and too little exercise, since a Curly-coated Retriever needs 60 to 120 minutes a day and an under exercised dog has a short fuse. With the Curly-coated Retriever, whose typical weight runs 60 to 95 pounds and whose lifespan reaches 9 to 14 years, the honest answer also changes a little across the dog's life, from puppyhood to senior status at about 7 years. Then work at distance with a qualified, force free trainer: parallel walks and calm repetitions, not flooding at the park. Individual temperament varies inside every breed, and a single difficult Curly-coated Retriever does not rewrite a record that reads Good with dogs; it just gets its own plan.
The record says the opposite for most: rated Good with dogs, a typical Curly-coated Retriever enjoys canine company and often plays and rests better with it. The Curly-coated Retriever's own numbers frame it: shedding at 3 out of 5, grooming at 3 out of 5, and a height of 25 to 27 inches, which is the household this social pattern has to fit into. Only dog homes still work when the social need is met another way, through play dates, classes and dog walking company. What a Curly-coated Retriever does not do well is being an only dog and an ignored one: its very high energy and social rating both point the same way, toward a life with company in it.
Yes, for active families wanting a steadier retriever: friendly and famously willing, good with children and other dogs. They are more independent and reserved than Goldens, which owners consider a feature.
Last updated: November 10, 2026